Six tests, ten minutes, your own phone
Take your phone off the clinic Wi-Fi, onto mobile data, and open your own site in a private window. Each test below is something a parent or a referrer physically does. Run them in order and write down which ones fail, because which ones matter more than how many.
1. Hand your phone to someone outside healthcare
The test: ask someone who does not work in health to look at your first screen for five seconds, then tell you who you help.
Pass: they describe people and situations. Children who struggle with handwriting. Adults getting back to work after an illness. Older people managing at home.
Fail: they repeat the words "occupational therapy" back to you, or they say they are not sure.
The fix: rewrite the first screen in what people can do afterwards, not in the name of the profession. This is the single highest-value change on most OT sites, and it costs nothing but the writing.
2. Find the page for one specific child
The test: you are the parent of a seven-year-old whose school has raised handwriting. Starting at your home page, count the taps to a page about that.
Pass: one tap, to a page that names it in a parent's words.
Fail: two or more taps, or a single Services page where OT appears as a bullet in a list.
The fix: a page per group you work with. Each one is a page a parent can recognise themselves in, and each one is a separate search.
3. Find the assessment fee without contacting anybody
The test: try to learn what an initial assessment costs, using only the site.
Pass: the assessment fee is on a page you can reach from the navigation.
Fail: "fees on request", or a fee that only appears once you have submitted a form.
The fix: state fees for the things people ask about: the assessment, therapy sessions, reports, and visits. An unstated fee does not stop the comparison, it just means you are not in it.
4. Arrive as a case manager
The test: you commission reports for an insurer. Find out what this practice assesses, how long a report takes, what it costs, and how to instruct one.
Pass: a professional referrals section that answers all four, with its own form.
Fail: the same enquiry form the families use, or nothing at all.
The fix: a separate section for referrers. This is usually the highest-value work in an OT practice and the least documented thing on its website.
5. Ask whether you come to the house
The test: find out whether this practice does home or school visits, and whether it covers where you live.
Pass: a page for each, naming the areas covered and describing how the visit works.
Fail: a clinic address and nothing else, which reads as clinic-only even when it is not.
The fix: a page per visit type with the areas listed. Much of OT happens where the person actually is, and a site that hides it turns away the enquiries it would most want.
6. Book, do not enquire
The test: try to book an initial assessment right now, on the phone in your hand.
Pass: live availability appears, the initial assessment carries its own longer duration, and an intake form follows.
Fail: a form that promises somebody will ring you back.
The fix: embed availability from whichever of Cliniko, Jane, Zanda, Power Diary or WriteUpp you run, with assessment and follow-up as separate types.
Scoring
Six out of six is rare. What matters is which ones failed. Tests 1 and 2 decide whether anybody reads far enough to care about the rest, so fix those first even if everything else passes. Tests 3 and 6 decide whether a family that is already convinced can act. Test 4 is where the money usually is. Test 5 is the enquiries you never hear about, because they assumed the answer was no.
Where this sits
Our occupational therapy websites are built to pass all six at a fixed price. For the diagnostic version of the same list, ordered by what each failure costs, read why your OT site gets no bookings. For what the build itself costs, see what an OT website costs.